Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

If someone could overcome the scientific and logical barriers to backdoors to encryption systems, they would still face one of trusting liars.

Many of our elected representatives want our technology companies to build encryption systems with “backdoors.” (Here is a link to one story of such.) These magical backdoors would permit the technology company to read our encrypted mail and other such private conversations. Our elected representatives don’t seem to understand that if there is way to unencrypt a message, people will find that way and do nefarious deeds.

If we could overcome the scientific and logical barriers to such encryption backdoors, there is a greater issue. The fundamental factor in encrypting message is that the technology company tells customers that the encryption is good. This means that a person must have the key to read the message. Since no one has a key, the conversation is private.

(1) The technology company is telling customers, “No one can read your message.”

The technology company, however, has a backdoor (in our magical legislated world).

(2) The technology company is telling the government, “We can read everyone’s message.”

A brief consideration of (1) and (2) shows that the technology company is lying to its customers. Hence, the technology company is a known L I A R.

Fast forward a day or two, and our government charges someone with a crime and comes to court to present evidence found in that ne’er-do-well person’s messages. The conversation goes something like…

Prosecutor: We have obtained evidence proving this ne’er-do-well is guilty.

Judge: How did you get this evidence?

Prosecutor: We obtained it via our friendly technology company and their magical backdoor.

Judge: So your case is based on the word of the technology company.

Prosecutor: Yes.

Judge: But from items (1) and (2), we know that the technology company is a L I A R.

Prosecutor: pause

Judge: You want to convict an accused ne’er-do-well on evidence supplied by a L I A R.

Prosecutor: longer pause

Judge: Good bye.

As a side note, the government of China has recently acted in an unprecedented transparent manner with regards to encrypted messages. They require all technology companies to give them copies of all the keys. There are no backdoors and there is no lying by the technology companies. Everyone in China knows that the government can read their mail all the time.